Alda and Perlman

Alan Alda talking with his friend Itzhak Perlman, at the 92nd Street Y and in Perlman’s kitchen.

Thanks, Kevin.

[The post title first had “Alan.” I mix up his first and last names often when trying to solve crosswords fast.]

Alan Alda as Young Poet

While I think of it: if you’ve never seen the Naked City episode “Hold for Gloria Christmas,” it’s at YouTube. Alan Alda appears as Young Poet, no name, in an episode devoted to Beat culture and Greenwich Village. His appearance begins at the 27:55 mark.

Two related posts
Positively Naked City (West 4th Street locations in the episode) : Of Harrises and Kings (Real-life models for two characters in the episode)

Alan Alda now and then

Alan Alda made an appearance on The Late Show last night. He was a delightful guest, talking about acting and his podcast series, Clear + Vivid.

Alan Alda is now eighty-five. How did that happen? He was the speaker at my college commencement, Fordham College, 1978, forty-three years ago. Forty-three years ago: how did that happen? I remember just one point Alda (FC ’56) made, which I think was the point of his address. He tasked graduates with asking themselves, every now and then, this question: “What are my values?” I remember it as a suggestion to check in with yourself, a way of asking “Is this who I am, who I want to be?”

I can find no account of the commencement to let me know if my memory is accurate. But here’s an Alda commencement address from 2015 that touches on a similar theme.

My dad once did tile work in the house of Alda’s next-door neighbor in Leonia, New Jersey. So being the kind of dad he was, he took a copy of the commencement program with him and knocked, hoping to get an autograph for me. I think he said a maid answered the door. Alan Alda wasn’t home. I think that if he had been home, he would have signed.

[In 1978 the fake Vonnegut commencement address Alda read in 2015 hadn’t yet been written. A 2017 article notes that Alda flew back to Leonia from Los Angeles every weekend while working on M*A*S*H. Perhaps he was out west when my dad knocked. Important: I had no idea what my dad was up to.]

Block that chyron

A CNN chyron just now: “respitory therapist.”

Related reading
All OCA misspelling posts (Pinboard)

Jeopardy and Neuriva

It’s dispiriting to see a spokesperson for a dubious brain supplement chosen as one of the new hosts of Jeopardy. I speak of Mayim Bialik, actor, “actual neuroscientist,” and television spokesperson for the supplement Neuriva Plus. You can read about Neuriva and Neuriva Plus here, here, and here.

I think of Neuriva as the new Prevagen. But it’s difficult to think of Mayim Bialik as the new Alex Trebek.

[The other new host: Mike Richards, executive producer of Jeopardy. The identifying phrase “actual neuroscientist” comes from the Neuriva commercial. It’s not clear that Bialik has ever worked as a neuroscientist.]

Far Side cave formations

In today’s Daily Dose of The Far Side, cavemen in conversation: “Oo! Grog run into a . . . a . .  dang! Now which kind stick up and which kind hang down?”

I know three mnemonics, by way of a recent Newsday crossword:

Stalactites have to hold on tight! (So they don’t fall off.)

Stalactites hold tightly to the ceiling, stalagmites might get tall enough to reach it.

C for ceiling; g for ground.

[The first two are from my friend Stefan Hagemann and an anonymous reader.]

Misheard

“The governor was working a grope line”: oh, rope line. But when Rita Glavin, Andrew Cuomo’s attorney, just said it, it sounded like grope line.

11:05: Cuomo is speaking now, and it sounds as if he’s about to resign.

11:06: He just did.

Related reading
All OCA misheard posts (Pinboard)

Blanket trick

Else (Wanda Hendrix) is a maid in a shabby London hotel. She’s about to get a visit from her boss, Mrs. Melandez (Katina Paxinou), and Melandez’s co-conspirator Contreras (Peter Lorre). Even if you anticipate the worst, this short sequence (about twelve seconds) still startles, as a blanket fills the screen and drops to reveal the visitors. From Confidential Agent (dir. Herbert Shumlin, 1945). Cinematography by James Wong Howe. Click any image for a larger view.


Just for the record: no one has said a word yet. Else senses that someone is now in the room with her.

Confidential Agent is available from TCM through August 29.

Rename X

It is possible to rename a group of files — say, photos — in macOS. But doing so is tedious, and the options are limited. For 99¢, Rename X does a much better job. I changed the eight screenshots for this post from “Screen Shot 2021-06-07 at 7.57.02 AM” and so on to “Confidential-Agent-1” and so on in just seconds. Highly recommended.

Three series, nine movies

[One to four stars. Four sentences each. No spoilers.]

Mare of Easttown (dir. Craig Zobel, 2021). A seven-episode mini-series starring Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a detective in a small tight-knit (or horribly knotted) Pennsylvania town, trying to solve a string of murders while struggling with a recent familial trauma. Many story lines branching off and intersecting, great writing, and excellent performances from Winslet, Jean Smart (as Mare’s mother Helen), and everyone else. It’s fun to count the tropes: the smartypants new guy, the badge and gun turned in, and so on. The one false note is the visiting creative-writing professor, whose sole book appeared twenty years ago, but his presence might be a joke on the part of the show’s writers. ★★★★

*

McCartney 3, 2, 1 (dir. Zachary Heinzerling, 2021). Rick Rubin talks with Paul McCartney about Beatle songs and Beatle history. That is all ye need to know. Countless revelations about what’s in the tracks: for instance, that the guitar solo in “A Hard Day’s Night” was played at half speed an octave down and then speeded up. As it’s Paul speaking, there’s an occasional backhanded compliment, but the overriding spirit here is his and Rubin’s retrospective joy about what the lads created — and oh, those bass lines when you hear them by themselves. ★★★★

*

The Comeback (created by Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, 2005 and 2014). An astute consumer of media recommended The Comeback as her favorite television series of all time. It’s a good call. Lisa Kudrow is an incredibly gifted actor (I didn’t know that), here playing Valerie Cherish, a one-time sit-com star trying to get back in the game, even if the game requires reality-TV crews recording her every move as she takes on roles in two new sit-coms. A funny and painful mockumentary series that made me root for its kind, hopeful, clueless, self-obsessed heroine, always trying to do her best in a cruel, cruel business. ★★★★

*

Summer of Soul (dir. Questlove, 2021). You probably know the story: a free outdoor music event, the Harlem Cultural Festival, spanning six Sunday afternoons in the summer of 1969, preserved on film and set aside (for lack of commercial interest) for fifty years. This documentary has generous performance clips, with commentary from musicians and concert-goers. The standouts, for me: the Fifth Dimension (with Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo watching their performance and talking about the racial politics of music), Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Sly and the Family Stone. It’s reported that Jimi Hendrix sought to be included but was deemed too far out: imagine how his presence or, say, Miles Davis’s presence, might have electrified (no pun intended) the proceedings. ★★★★

*

The Good Die Young (dir. Lewis Gilbert, 1954). Shades of The Asphalt Jungle: a London gentleman (Laurence Harvey) leads an American vet (Richard Basehart), an American Air Force sergeant (John Ireland), and a British ex-boxer (Stanley Baker) in an effort to commit a perfect crime. Things here are complicated by the men’s marriages: to Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins, Gloria Grahame, and Rene Ray. Each marriage gets a separate piece of the movie. And slowly the four stories are woven together through the fatal magic of contingency. ★★★★

*

Clockwatchers (dir. Jill Sprecher, 1997). The clocks are on the walls of the Global Credit Association, where four temps, Iris, Margaret, Paula, and Jane (Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach), establish a wobbly solidarity against the permanently employed. When things begin to go missing from other people’s desks, it’s the temps who fall under suspicion. A great depiction of the torpor of office culture: IBM Selectrics, supply rooms, Happy Hours, and camaraderie among people who have little in common but the circumstances of their labor. Posey and Kudrow shine. ★★★★

*

The Donut King (dir. Alice Gu, 2020). This documentary starts out well, telling the story of Bun Tek Ngoy (later Ted Ngoy), a Cambodian refugee who became a dominant figure in California donut culture. At first we get a story of success against long odds: a penniless man learns the trade at a Winchell’s Donut House, saves money, goes into business for himself, and is soon sponsoring and then employing other Cambodian refugees in a donut-shop empire. But early and late, there are much darker elements in Ngoy’s story, only some of which the movie acknowledges (hint: read Ngoy’s Wikipedia article). At about fifty minutes in, the movie seemed to wrap up and start over, as if someone were whispering, “It needs to be longer.” ★★

*

Turn the Key Softly (dir. Jack Lee, 1953). One day in the lives of three women just released from prison and returning to London. The backstories: genteel Monica (Yvonne Mitchell) fell in with bad company and took the rap; Stella (Joan Collins), now engaged, was engaged in prostitution; Mrs. Quilliam (Kathleen Harrison) did more than her share of shoplifting. Their three lives now converge in odd and surprising ways. Fine performances, and for anyone afraid of heights, a terrifying scene at a theater. ★★★★

*

Confidential Agent (dir. Herbert Shumlin, 1945). It’s 1937, the Spanish Civil War is raging, and confidential agent Luis Denard (Charles Boyer) has come to London looking to buy coal for the Republican government. The helpers and hinderers he encounters include a wealthy Brit (Lauren Bacall, not even trying to fake a British accent), a teacher of an Esperanto-like language (Peter Lorre), a hotel proprietor (Katina Paxinou), and a maid of all work (Wanda Hendrix). The movie looks back to The 39 Steps and forward to Dark Passage. From a novel by Graham Greene, with great cinematography by James Wong Howe. ★★★★

*

The Conspirators (dir. Jean Negulesco, 1944). Paul Henreid is Viktor Laszlo, Vincent Van Der Lyn, Czech Dutch resistance fighter, newly arrived in Casablanca Lisbon, and preparing to travel to Lisbon London. Yes, this movie shamelessly borrows atmosphere, cast members, and plot elements from Casablanca, and that’s fine by me. My favorite moment: Vincent ordering dinner, beginning with bread and butter and ending with real coffee. With Sydney Greenstreet, Hedy Lamarr, and Peter Lorre. ★★★★

*

Across the Pacific (dir. John Huston, 1942). It’s November 1941, and Humphrey Bogart is Rick Blaine Rick Leland, court-martialed in the States, now on his way to fight with the Chinese military, traveling via the Panama Canal. Also on board his ship: Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) and Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), who bring considerable Maltese Falcon atmosphere to the proceedings — Rick even calls Astor’s character “Angel.” And look: there’s even a Japanese gunsel. Mystery and suspense in a satisfying dose of “the movies,” with the bonus of Astor and Bogart in some light comic moments. ★★★★

*

Yellow Canary (dir. Herbert Wilcox, 1943). As confusing as all get out, whatever “all get out” means. Here we’re traveling from England to Nova Scotia, on a ship carrying a British Nazi collaborator (Anna Neagle), a Polish military man (Albert Lieven), and a British intelligence officer (Richard Greene). What are they up to, and what’s Nova Scotia got to do with it? It takes a long time for things to become clear, and then the movie gets markedly better. ★★★

Related reading
All OCA film posts (Pinboard)

[Sources: Criterion Channel, HBO Max, Hulu, TCM, YouTube.]